Lens Cleaning Techniques
Yeah, I know, this doesn’t really seem like an overly exciting topic today, but I think it’s well worth a mention. Seems like every time someone hands me his or her camera to take a photo, the lens looks like it’s been dipped into a shop vac.
First off, a clean lens is an essential ingredient to great photos. A lens that’s full of smudges, dirt, or… Continue reading
Havin’ Fun Flashin’
Nope, this isn’t an article explaining how to go out on the street and flash unsuspecting victims, but I couldn’t resist the title 
OK, over the last three weeks or so, we’ve been poking around in some of the more intermediate and advanced areas of digital photography, so I thought we’d go with something easier this week—Flash Modes.
Most digital cameras have a variety of different… Continue reading
Histogram Fun
A Hist-o-what?
A histogram is a graphical representation of the light values of the image. Yeah, I know, that really helps. Many newer digicams include a histogram display, and it’s actually one of the most useful features you can have on a digital camera.
First off, let’s look at a picture of one:
Wait, don’t stop reading! I know, I know, it looks confusing, but just hang… Continue reading
Exposure Compensation
Have you ever shot an outdoor scene and had it come out a little too light or a little too dark? Yup, it happens to all of us at one time or another. For whatever reason, the camera misreads the scene and your exposure is all wrong.
So, what do you do when you look at the LCD panel and the photo you just shot is too light… Continue reading
Fall Color Tricks And Tips
With autumn here already (where, exactly, did summer go?), we’ve been getting lots of requests for fall color tips. So, when you venture out this season to grab some brightly colored autumn imagery, keep this in mind:
1. Shoot during good light — we’ve been talking about his for the last couple weeks, so I’m not going to get too detailed. Suffice to say that… Continue reading
Great Light
I get questions all the time about my photos. People want to know why they look the way they do. They think it’s some big Photoshop secret I’ve yet to share. Nope
One of the biggest tricks in my bag is to shoot during great light. If you can do that, you’ve won 80% of the battle—the rest is just compose and shoot.
What do I mean… Continue reading
Macro Mode
We had a reader ask:
“My camera is supposed to be able to focus down to 4 inches, but I can’t get anywhere close to that. Do you think the camera is defective?”
Your camera is probably fine. I’ve seen this happen to several friends, so I know you’re not alone.
In order to get in really close, you’ll need to switch your digicam to Macro mode (usually… Continue reading
Have you ever been working on an image and had the computer crash? Sucks, doesn’t it? All that hard work, down the proverbial tubes.
I remember a few years back working on an image in Photoshop. It was a restoration of an old photo I was doing for a family member (I was “volunteered” since I “knew about those darn computers”).
So, I scanned… Continue reading
Formatting Cards
A reader asks, “What’s with card formatting? Do I really need to do it? I just popped my card into my camera and everything seems to work OK.”
Formatting a card basically insures that it is going to work right with your camera.
Just like computers, memory cards have files systems, folders, etc. When you use your camera to format a card, it sets the card up the… Continue reading
PC Or Mac For Digital Imaging?
I had the “Should I use a PC or Mac for digital imaging” question brought up to me recently. It seems like when people start to get more serious about digital imaging, this question always comes up. So, what’s the answer?
A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far, away, if you were going to do any kind of digital imaging, you were… Continue reading
